Col Gaddafi's will calls on followers to fight on and remember 'heroes'

Col Muammar Gaddafi called on his followers to fight on and remember their "heroes"
in a will that has appeared on a loyalist website as the debate continued
over what to do with his body.

He apparently made it clear he had decided to die in Libya rather than flee, telling his supporters: "Let the free people of the world know that we could have bargained over and sold out our cause in return for a personal secure and stable life. Photo: AFP/GETTY

The short will was said to be one of three copies given to relatives, one of whom was killed, one arrested and one managed to escape the fighting in Sirte, where the dictator was killed.

Published on Gaddafi's website, Seven Day News, the former Libyan dictator said: "I call on my supporters to continue the resistance, and fight any foreign aggressor against Libya, today, tomorrow and always."

He apparently made it clear he had decided to die in Libya rather than flee, telling his supporters: "Let the free people of the world know that we could have bargained over and sold out our cause in return for a personal secure and stable life.

"We received many offers to this effect but we chose to be at the vanguard of the confrontation as a badge of duty and honour."

Gaddafi asked to be buried, clothed as he died, with his body unwashed, in a graveyard in his home town of Sirte, not far from where he was killed as he fled the city on Thursday.

His body is currently in a refrigerated vegetable warehouse in Misurata where crowds, who suffered some of the worst attacks by Gaddafi forces, are queuing to catch site of the dead dictator.

In his will Gaddafi also called for his family to be treated "well" adding that the Libyan people should protect their "heroes."

It now seems likely that his body will be handed over to his remaining relatives after tribal leaders backed calls for his corpse to be given a traditional Muslim burial.

Tribal honour underpins much of the country's public life and the demand will prove to be a big test for the country's new government because the Gaddafa tribe has benefited enormously from the 42-year dictatorship of the Libyan strongman.

Libya's new regime will not want an obvious shrine in Sirte, although the National Transitional Council indicated Gaddafi's surviving relatives would have a say in what happened to his body.

"The decision has been taken to hand him over to his extended family, because none of his immediate family are present at this moment," an NTC official, Ahmed Jibril, said. "The NTC are in consultation with his family. It is for his family to decide where Gaddafi will be buried, in consultation with the NTC,"

The interim authorities had originally wanted the body to be buried in an unmarked grave in the desert. However they ran into resistance from the Masrata militias who had captured him and who did not want the responsibility for burying the dead leader.

Col Gaddafi's widow Saifa had issued a statement demanding that the body is turned over to his family.

It separately emerged that Aisha, Col Gaddafi's daughter called her father on his satellite phone shortly after he was killed. One of the rebels answered and used his slang nickname to announce his death. He was reported to have said: "We have killed old Bushufshufa (Frizzy Head)."